Sadly, I guess I’ll be one of the first to say this

Since President Obama, Governor Jennifer Granholm and our elected officials in the state of Michigan apparently haven’t had the chance to do it publicly, let me be among the first to say thank you to Dutchman Jasper Schuringa and other passengers on Northwest Flight 253 for their courageous acts on Christmas day.

By now I’m sure all of you, or at least I hope all of you, have heard the news about a foiled terrorist attack that took place in the air just ten minutes out of Detroit Metro Airport on Christmas.

How was it foiled? Jasper Schuringa, mentioned in the first paragraph, saw smoke coming from a seat filled by a young Nigerian man who was trying to blow up the plane and take it down over an American metropolitan area, causing more destruction. He then grabbed the would-be killer, took him down and worked to extinguish the burning chemicals the man had on him.

Thanks Jasper. I’m sure millions upon millions of Americans are thankful for your heroic act, yet no one in government or the talking heads representing the mainstream media seems to be saying the two most important words that should be said – “Thank you.”

If the terrorist was successful, nearly 300 lives on the Northwest 253 plane would have been lost and the plan could’ve crashed into Detroit, no doubt adding to the death toll.

That’s right … Detroit, Michigan. You’d think some of our government officials would thank Mr. Schuringa, and others on the plane that stepped up, for saving many lives.

But instead, I hear, the day after the near catastrophe, about the moaning and complaining over long lines and increased security at airport terminals. The attention went from disaster-averted due to ordinary people looking out for one another to “Oh the woes of holiday travel. And to add to it…”

And I’m betting it’ll only get worse. The next step, of course, will be for this event to be politicized. Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee talked over the weekend about the growing Al Qaeda threat from Yemen, where the Nigerian had apparently visited and allegedly received instructions on using his explosive device. But I’m grateful Rep. Hoekstra did take the high road, sort of, and didn’t make this a flat-out Republican vs. Democrat political issue (he did flirt with politicization, though).

But we’ll see what happens over the coming weeks. Hopefully the left and the right can take their hands away from the other’s throats long enough to let both sides tell the heroes of the day what they deserve to hear – thank you.

And then, how about instead of pointing fingers and fighting, we work to fix the problem and find out exactly what’s going on? I know the people of Detroit and the state of Michigan want to know an event like this won’t happen again.